Raul Castro visits Russia, the first by a Cuban leader

MOSCOW - Raul Castro has begun the first official visit by a Cuban leader to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.

He will be here from Jan 28 to Feb 4. The tour is expected to give ’serious impetus to the development of bilateral relations’, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier this month.

Medvedev visited Cuba last November where he met Raul Castro and his brother Fidel Castro and pledged to further political and economic ties with Russia’s traditional partner in the Caribbean.

Russia and Cuba will expand cooperation in the energy and military sectors, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who co-chairs the Russian-Cuban intergovernmental commission.